Piano Faculty

Dalton Baldwin, professor of accompanying and coaching at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, has worked with many of the great singers of our time: Gerard Souzay, Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Jessye Norman, Theresa Berganza, Frederica von Stade, Nicolai Gedda and Jose van Dam. He has also played for instrumentalists such as Henryk Szeryng, Pierre Fournier and the Via Nova Quartet. Mr. Baldwin was permanent pianist of Gérard Souzay for over three decades, during which time they toured extensively on five continents and made numerous prize-winning recordings.

Born in Santiago, Chile, pianist Ena Bronstein Barton began her career in South America, touring her native continent. After winning a national piano competition she traveled to New York to study with Claudio Arrau and Rafael de Silva. Her New York debut at Town Hall was received with critical acclaim. Since then, Ms. Barton’s career has taken her across the United States, back to South America, to Europe, the Near and Far East, Australia and New Zealand.

Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield, nationally recognized teacher, clinician, pianist, and author is Professor of Piano and Coordinator of the Piano Department at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey. She has given lecture-recitals, workshops and master classes in more than a hundred cities across North America, including many presentations at state and national conferences of The Music Teachers National Association.

Miriam Eley is a Master Faculty member in piano at Westminster Conservatory of Music in Princeton, New Jersey. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University, teaching within the piano secondary program. In addition to her teaching and performing career, Ms. Eley held several administrative positions at Westminster Conservatory.

Pianist James Goldsworthy has performed throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States, including broadcasts on Austrian National Television, the California cable television show "Grand Piano", Vermont Public Television, BBC Radio, and Minnesota Public Radio. While a Fulbright scholar in Vienna, he performed in one of the Musikverein 175th Anniversary Celebration concerts given in the Brahms Saal, and concertized in Vienna, Baden, and Spital am Semmering, Austria.

Phyllis Alpert Lehrer is known internationally as a performer, teacher, clinician, author and adjudicator. She has given master classes, workshops and enjoyed an active concert career as a soloist and collaborative artist in the United States, Canada, Central America, Asia and Europe. Her performances have met with much critical acclaim: “Warmth and vibrancy at its best,” The Times (London); “An able warmhearted pianist…Impressive musicianly qualities,” Daily Telegraph (London); “an admirable musicality …” (The New York Times).

Born in Smithtown, New York, and raised in New Jersey, David Leifer earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano (2006) and a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy and Performance (2008) from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, where he studied with Professor Lillian Livingston and Professor Ingrid Clarfield. While at Westminster, he won the 2004 annual Westminster Piano Awards competition, and had the honor of performing in the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in 2007.

Lillian Livingston is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Piano at Westminster Choir College of Rider University. She is the Director of the Professional Development Certificate Program for Independent Teachers. She is also Director of the Westminster’s summer piano camp for middle school students.

Piano faculty member Dr. Thomas J. Parente is the author of a class piano textbook entitled The Evolving Class Pianist (Linus, 2012), a training text for teachers of class piano entitled "How to Teach Group Piano Successfully through Flow" (Linus, 2008), and a new piano pedagogy book The Positive Pianist: How Flow Can Bring Passion to Practice and Performance (Oxford University Press, 2015). His article with the same title was published by Clavier Companion in January, 2015.

Agnes Poltorak earned her Masters Degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College of Rider University where she studied piano with Ena Bronstein Barton and pedagogy with Phyllis Alpert Lehrer and Louise Goss. She has been a member of the Westminster Choir College Piano Faculty since 2000 and also has taught at the Westminster Conservatory of Music since 1998.